


The One Where Koz Cares For A Whiny Winged Teen

by Yevynaea



Category: Guardians of Childhood - William Joyce, Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Wings, One Shot, alternate universe - maximum ride
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-08
Updated: 2014-04-08
Packaged: 2018-01-18 15:52:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1434196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yevynaea/pseuds/Yevynaea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>...basically what the title says.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The One Where Koz Cares For A Whiny Winged Teen

"Hold still."

"Ow! Stop it!"

"I'm just trying to put ointment on your scrapes, stop being such a child. How did you even manage to get so beat up in the first place?"

"I fell."

Koz pauses, his eyes flicking not for the first time to Jamie's huge golden-brown wings.

"From how high?" He finally inquires, continuing to clean all the cuts covering Jamie's arms and legs before putting ointment on them and putting bandages over them. He has a sneaking suspicion that the boy will resemble a mummy from an old movie by the time he's all bandaged up.

"...About forty feet." Jamie finally admits. "But I know how to land without breaking anything; it could've been worse."

"Hmm." Koz hums, displeased that the boy would need to know that. "Do you fall often, then?"

"No." Jamie sends him an exasperated look. "My wings are for flying, not plummeting to the ground. I only fall if I'm knocked down."

"Someone else knocked you out of the sky?" Koz's ears perk up at the thought of there being other people like Jamie, until a few hours ago he didn't believe in any kind of superhuman being, but now there was a very sarcastic angel-child sitting on his couch, so that kind of put things in a new perspective.

“Yeah, an Eraser.” Jamie waves his hand dismissively at Kozmotis’ confused expression. “They’re like flying werewolf things. And they’re out to get me and--” The boy stops, licks his lips nervously, like he’s said too much but knows he can’t take it back. Koz pretends not to notice the slip, dutifully wrapping bandages around Jamie’s arm in silence.

“So where did the ‘Eraser’ go after you fell?”

“It saw me land hard and not get up.” Jamie shrugged. “I’m guessing it assumed its job was done and went to go tell its friends that it finally managed to kill a ‘bird-freak’.”

“How old are you, Jamie?” Koz asked. He’d gotten the boy’s name earlier, when he’d looked out the window and seen Jamie lying half-unconscious in the woods behind his home. He’d brought Jamie in and asked for his name, and it had been given, but no more information had been given than that. But now Koz found himself sympathetic toward this boy; here Jamie was barely an adult, if even, and he was a target for murder-by-flying-werewolf.

“Eighteen, I think.” Jamie shrugged. “You don’t really grow up celebrating birthdays when your home is a laboratory filled with scientists who call you by a number instead of a name.” The boy snapped his mouth shut when he realized how bitter and sharp his tone was, but after a moment of stunned silence Kozmotis finished processing the kid’s words and understood the bitterness completely.

“Did you name yourself, then?” Koz asked.

“Yeah. ‘Jamie’ means ‘supplanter’, and we kind of overthrew the people controlling us when we escaped the labs. In a way, at least.” Jamie explained. “And my last name, ‘Bennett’ I got that from one of the scientists who created us. Dr. Bennett was the nicest; she actually seemed to care about us, unlike most of the others. She was kind of a mother figure for us.”

Kozmotis wanted to ask who ‘us’ meant, but didn’t want to make Jamie clam up again.

“There.” Kozmotis smiled proudly at the finished bandages, happy with his work. Jamie smiled at him gratefully.

“Thanks.” The boy sighed in relief when he stood up and found that there were no longer sharp grains of sand-like dirt in his wounds. “Um…I should probably…go now.”

“Now?” Kozmotis didn’t want Jamie to leave; he wanted to ask the boy more questions, about anything and everything. About what it was like to fly with actual wings, about why he was being hunted by werewolves who worked for mad scientists, about who Jamie was on the run with now.

Then Jamie was suddenly perking up like he’d heard something, and before Koz could even stand up the boy was all the way across the room, opening the back door to eye the shadows outside warily. Jamie whistled a bird call, and a quick reply came from just beyond the tree line. Jamie relaxed instantly and whistled again, differently this time. Then he waited.

Koz walked over to stand next to him, and an alarmed whistle came from the trees, but Jamie replied in a reassuring tone, repeating the message again when it was met by silence the first time. Slowly, more teenagers started emerging from the trees, seven of them in all when Kozmotis counted them, and all with huge, feathered wings sprouting from their backs.

“Jamie, who’s this?” One of them asked suspiciously, a slender girl in a green sweater.

“This is Kozmotis. He helped me after I got separated from you guys.” Jamie gestured to the group at large. “Koz, this is the flock.”

“Well, most of it.” One boy, his hair sticking up even more than Koz’s own, frowned and crossed his arms over his chest. “We should get going soon if we want to get to the School by morning.”

Jamie looked at the sky and shook his head.

“It’ll be light soon; we won’t make it before evening at least. The Erasers held us up too long.” Jamie sounded worried.

“Sophie’s okay, Jamie.” Another girl reassured him, though she sounded worried herself.

“Yeah, I hope so.” Jamie sighed and turned to Koz, holding his hand out. Kozmotis shook it. “Thanks again for your help.”

“Any time.” Kozmotis watched, a bit awed, as Jamie and the other kids all took a short leaping start before snapping their wings open and soaring up above the trees. He waved, waiting until they were out of sight to go back inside.


End file.
